Glance at Roland Kickinger's muscle-bound frame and engage him in conversation, and it's difficult not to conjure images of another Austrian native, who for the time being is better-known.

Kickinger, born in 1968 in Vienna before moving to the United States 13 years ago, has a background, vocal fingerprint and resumé that bear at least superficial similarity to those of Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is perhaps no coincidence.

Both are former bodybuilders who took to the sport at an early age and ended up winning the vaunted Mr. Universe competition. Both turned to acting and made it a passion.

Both carry an accent that hints of the old country, and by 2009, both will have played important roles in Terminator films (Kickinger will play T-800 in Terminator Salvation:

The Future Begins, due out next year).

Perhaps it is too much to say that Kickinger has moulded himself in the Governator's image, but he readily admits Schwarzenegger is a significant influence.

"He was a great mentor," said Kickinger during a recent visit to the Goderich area. "I had several mentors, but Arnold, obviously from Austria and . a bodybuilder turning to movies . he's definitely an amazing inspiration."

The two trained together for a while, Kickinger said, and he found the elder Austrian to be an inspirational figure.

"He's like anybody else - nice, kind, nothing like you would think of someone on his level," Kickinger said.

"Very down to earth, I would say, and that makes him very likeable and approachable. Everybody can just come up and talk to him. He's always him, you know? He never changes or does something different."

Like Schwarzenegger, Kickinger has ties to bodybuilding icon Joe Weider, and struggled during his early days in America.

According to the biography posted on Kickinger.com, Roland initially lived in his car, earning money by posing for pictures with patrons at California's Venice Beach, working as a personal trainer and - of all things - painting numbers on the tops of commercial buildings.

"In Venice Beach, there's so many incidents," he said. "Every night there were helicopters flying around and gang activity and so forth.

"I figured, being in a helicopter, you sometimes don't know where you're at unless you see the house numbers on the roof painted on, it gives you more orientation .

"So I figured it would be a really good idea just to paint the numbers on the roof. Nobody really would see it, and it would help the helicopters."

As Kickinger said earlier in an interview, all is not glitz and glamour for new immigrants to the United States, but eventually doors began to open.

After a number of non-recurring T.V. parts, he landed a role on "Son of the Beach," a "Baywatch" parody that aired on the cable channel FX.

Kickinger appeared in 42 episodes as Chip Rommel, a character Kickinger.com describes as a "body building hunk."

In years since, he has appeared on the CBS sitcom "The King of Queens," and recently filmed an appearance on ABC's "According to Jim."

He also played Schwarzenegger in the 2005 bio-pic See Arnold Run, which aired on the A&E Network. This month, however, Kickinger begins filming what is likely the role of his life to date, as his portion of Terminator Salvation begins to take shape.

"There's a very strong scene in the film where John Connor for the first time meets the Terminator, and he doesn't know if he's a good guy or a bad guy," said Kickinger.

"It's Arnold's character in the first Terminator. That's basically my role, but 20 years before, so it establishes how the Terminator [came] about."

Schwarzenegger, "20 years before," is roughly how Hollywood has seen Kickinger to date. Time will tell if the protege remains in his mentor's hulking shadow, or manages to